World of Warcraft PTR Client Patch 4.1.0

Important: These patch notes are not final. Additional updates will be made, and all existing changes are subject to revision during the course of the testing process. More information regarding patch 4.1 can be found here. Visit our Public Test Realm forum for more information about the testing process.

General

Honor is now purchasable from the Justice Commodities Vendor at 250 Honor per 375 Justice.

Justice is now purchasable from the Honor Commodities Vendor at 250 Justice per 375 Honor.

Conquest is now purchasable from the Valor vendor at 250 Conquest per 250 Valor.

Resilience scaling has been modified for linear returns, as opposed to increasing returns. Under the new formula, going from 30 resilience to 40 resilience gives players the same increase to survivability as going from 0 to 10. Resilience now scales in the same way armor and magic resistances do. A player with 32.5% damage reduction from resilience in 4.0.6 should see their damage reduction unchanged in 4.1. Those with less than 32.5% will gain slightly. Those with more will lose some damage reduction, increasingly so as their resilience climbs.

A dead player can now be resurrected by targeting them using the Party or Raid Frame even if they have released. No more hunting for corpses.

Several persistent ground effects now display different visuals for hostile and friendly players. The following spells have the same visual effects for friendly players, but new alternate visuals for hostile players: Ring of Frost, Consecration, Desecration, Wild Mushroom, Flare, Ice Trap, Power Word: Barrier, Smoke Bomb, and Hand of Gul'dan. As a general rule, the alternate effects have a red tint or hue indicating they are created by an enemy player. There are currently some issues with this new change which are affecting several of these abilities and is not working as intended at this time.

Classes

Raise Ally has been redesigned to be a battle resurrection, analogous to Rebirth. It is instant cast, but costs 50 Runic Power to use, and has a 10-minute cooldown. It shares the same global battle resurrection cap with Rebirth and Soulstone.

Howling Blast damage has been increased by 20%. To compensate, the area-of-effect splash now does 50% of the single-target damage, down from 60%. The net result of this change leaves the area-of-effect damage roughly the same as 4.0.6 numbers. In addition, Howling Blast now has a facing requirement.

Unholy

no longer triggers when an applicable strike hits a snare-immune target. This is primarily to avoid unnecessary spell effect clutter during boss encounters.

Rage of Rivendare again applies 15/30/45% additional damage to Plague, Scourge, and Festering Strike, up from 12/24/36%.

Savage Defense has been redesigned slightly. Instead of a single charge absorption, it now places an absorption effect on the druid absorbing up to 35% of the druid's attack power (modified by mastery, if applicable) in damage and lasting 10 seconds. There are no longer any charges on the effect.

Swipe (Bear) cooldown has been reduced to 3 seconds, down from 6, and is now trainable at level 18 (training cost has been reduced). In addition, the bonus threat from this ability has been removed and replaced with increased damage done.

Swipe (Cat) damage has been doubled.

Thrash bonus threat has been removed and replaced with increased damage done.

Druids now innately have 100% pushback protection from damage while channeling Tranquility.

has been redesigned. It creates a healing zone at the feet of a Swiftmend target, but this healing zone now restores health equal to 4/8/12% of the amount healed by Swiftmend to the three most injured targets within 8 yards, every 1 second for 7 seconds. This periodic effect now also benefits from spell haste, but the individual ticks cannot be critical effects. In addition, Living Seed is no longer a prerequisite talent for Efflorescence.

The Happiness/Pet Loyalty System has been removed. Hunters will no longer have to manage Happiness for their pets, and the previous damage bonus for pets being happy will now be baseline for all tamed pets.

Glyphs

Glyph of Mend Pet is now Glyph of Greater Proportion, which increases the size of the pet slightly.

Hunter Bug Fixes

Hunters will no longer automatically acquire a new target if the current target dies in the middle of a cast.

Auto Shot now automatically turns off until reactivated once Freezing Trap is cast on an enemy player.

Deterrence: The area damage of the paladin ability Hammer of the Righteous will no longer hit Hunters with Deterrence active.

Distracting Shot and Multi-Shot are now properly 40-yard range.

Multi-Shot now properly has a 1-second global cooldown.

Scatter Shot's disorient effect should no longer sometimes be broken by the hunter's Auto Shot.

has been redesigned and decoupled from shaman Fire totems. Instead, it now pulses that same area-of-effect from each target that is afflicted by the shaman's own debuff. It now damages all enemies except the target hit by Flame Shock. The ability's cooldown has been reduced from 4 seconds, down from 10.

Grounding Totem cooldown has been increased to 25 seconds, up from 15.

now lasts for 60 seconds, up from 21.

's area-of-effect threat pulse no longer affects critters.

Talent Specializations

Elemental Combat

is no longer a channeled spell. It now has a 2-second cast time, lasts for 10 seconds, and has a 10-second cooldown. Its damage has been reduced by 40% from its channeled version.

Enhancement

Improved Fire Nova has been redesigned and replaced by a talent called Seasoned Winds. When an enemy spell cast is successfully prevented with Wind Shear, the shaman gains magical resistance (in an amount equal to what a protection totem/aura would grant, stacking with such buffs) to the spell school(s) of the interrupted spell (except for Holy spells), lasting 10 seconds.

Earth Shield healing done by Restoration shaman has been reduced by 20%.

Nature's Blessing has been improved to 6/12/18% bonus direct healing on Earth Shielded targets, up from 5/10/15%.

Spirit Link Totem (new talent) reduces damage taken by all party and raid members within 10 yards by 10%. This lasts 6 seconds, and every second it is active the health of all affected players is redistributed among them, such that each player ends up with the same percentage of their maximum health. This counts as an Air totem and has a 3-minute cooldown.

Glyphs

Glyph of Grounding Totem now increases the cooldown of the ability by 35 seconds, down from 45 seconds.

Dark Intent: The friendly target of this ability now receives 1% (stacking 3 times to 3%) periodic spell damage and healing bonus instead of 3% (stacking 3 times to 9%). The casting Warlock still receives 3% (stacking 3 times to 9%).

(new ability) is available from trainers at level 83. It temporarily grants the warrior and all party or raid members within 30 yards 20% of maximum health for 10 seconds. After the effect expires, the health is lost. It has no cost, no stance requirements, and is not on the global cooldown. It has a 3-minute cooldown, but also shares a cooldown with .

Dungeons & Raids

The Dungeon Finder now attempts to avoid putting damage-dealing classes with the same armor type in a group.

Players will now get bonus rewards 7 times per week (while earning less than 980 Valor Points) instead of once a day when using Dungeon Finder.

When there is only 1 player left in a Dungeon Finder group, they will now be able to queue for replacements as long as they queue within 2 minutes or stay in the dungeon.

The Dungeon Finder: Call to Arms will now identify which class role is currently the least represented in the queue, and offer them additional rewards for entering the Dungeon Finder queue and completing a random level-85 Heroic dungeon.The least represented class icon will show within the Dungeon Finder to indicate the role that is eligible to earn the bonus reward.Players must queue solo with the currently indicated least represented class (by the system) and complete the dungeon up to and including the final boss in order to be eligible for the bonus reward.The bonus reward will be displayed to eligible (system identified as least represented) classes within the UI.Once the dungeon is completed the eligible player will receive a (account bound) with various potential rewards including: gold, rare gems, non-combat pets, and (very rare) mounts.

New dungeons available for partial testing.

Zul'Aman has returned as a level-85 5-player Heroic dungeon featuring a revamp of the original dungeon and improved loot!

Zul'Gurub has returned as a level-85 5-player Heroic dungeon featuring all-new encounters, achievements, and improved loot!

Both dungeons will be in a new Dungeon Finder difficulty tier above the current level-85 Heroic dungeons and offer epic-quality item level 353 loot.

These dungeons may only partially be available for testing at this time. Stay tuned for additional updates.

Players should no longer be able to avoid the first period damage tick of Searing Flame, and Searing Flame now ticks every 2 seconds. The damage of Searing Flame has been increased to compensate for it ticking less frequently.

Flash Bomb (Golem Sentry ability) now has a more clear warning visual.Magmaw now triggers a raid emote when summoning Lava Parasites.Further improvements have been made in the Maloriak encounter to avoid Flash Freeze targeting the tanks.Nefarian's End

The damage of Shadowflame Barrage has been reduced by 15% (10-player normal and Heroic difficulty only).

The damage of Tail Lash has been reduced by 20% (10-player normal and Heroic difficulty only).

Each challenge can be completed a set number of times per week. Guild groups participating in level-appropriate Heroic or normal difficulty dungeons and raids, or Rated Battlegrounds, will automatically qualify for challenge credit.

Each time a Guild Challenge is completed, the guild will be awarded experience and gold deposited directly into the Guild Vault, as well as the opportunity to earn all-new achievements. A popup or “toast” will be displayed to confirm a Guild Challenge has been completed (similar to achievement alerts).

Guild experience earned via Guild Challenges will be awarded above the daily cap. The experience cap will move forward relative to the amount of experience obtained through completing Guild Challenges (similar to rested experience for characters).

Guilds already at the level cap will be awarded substantially more gold in place of guild experience.

Gold rewards are now deposited into the guild bank once the guild reaches level 5. The text for the Cash Flow guild perk has been updated appropriately.

The Guild Perk, , no longer prints out text to the Chat Log. Instead, the daily amount deposited is shown in the Guild Vault Money Log. In addition, players can view the weekly contribution in a new window at the bottom of the Money Log.We have added two new custom guild tabards as Guild Rewards. The tabards are account bound and offer a bonus to gaining guild reputation.The amount of guild experience rewarded for rated Battleground guild group wins has been dramatically increased.Players are now rewarded guild experience for Honorable Kills in the field.Players are now rewarded guild experience for Battleground wins in Battleground brackets up to level 80.Arena teams are now awarded guild experience for wins. The entire team must be members of the same guild to earn this experience.

Items

All trade goods available for purchase with Honor or Justice Points from the associated commodities vendors have had their prices reduced by 50%.

Maelstrom Crystals are now available for purchase with Honor or Justice Points from the associated commodities vendors.

The PvP Horde and Alliance trinkets have a new spell effect.

Item Sets

The current damage-dealing death knight 4-piece raid set bonus now also grants increased attack power when Killing Machine triggers, as well as when the death knight gains Death Runes).

The current Holy paladin 4-piece raid set bonus now grants 540 Spirit for 6 seconds after casting Holy Shock.

The current healing priest 4-piece raid set bonus no longer requires a target to be under the effects of Weakened Soul for the priest to receive the Spirit bonus. Instead the benefit will be granted each time the priest's Penance spell heals a target.

The caster shaman 4-piece PvP set bonus now reduces the cooldown of Grounding Totem by 3 seconds, up from 1.5.

Professions

All major cities will now have every type of profession trainer and their associated trade supply vendors.

PvP

Arenas

The Ring of Valor has returned! It should now be playable again in the Arena map rotation.

New starting areas have been added for Ring of Valor. Players will no longer enter the Arena on the elevator. It's been removed. Instead players will start in a room at opposite ends of the Arena.

After 3 minutes of both teams having the flag, both flag carriers will get Focused Assault, which increases damage taken by 10%.

Every minute afterward, an additional stack will be applied to increase damage taken by an additional 10%.

After 7 minutes, Brutal Assault will be applied in place of Focused Assault. In additional to the damage debuff, this debuff also caps the player's movement speed at 100%. The damage taken debuff works the same and will add 10% to the debuff up to a maximum of 100% damage taken.

Players will now only spawn at their base graveyard when they die in the enemy base.

Defending players will respawn at the middle graveyard.

Midfield players will respawn at the middle graveyard.

Attacking players will respawn at their base graveyard.

Quests & Creatures

New Cooking and Fishing Dailies have been added to Darnassus, Ironforge, Thunder Bluff, and Undercity.

A handful of quests have been added to Northern Barrens to provide more level 18-20 content. Look for new quests at Nozzlepot's Outpost and Darsok's Outpost.

Loot from the creatures Garr, Julak-Doom, Mobus, and Poseidus has been adjusted to be commensurate to their rarity and invested effort.

Races

The gnomish racial ability, , is no longer affected by the global cooldowns triggered by other abilities.

The human racial ability, , has a new spell effect.

User Interface

The Guild Finder has been implemented! While we are continuing to add final polish to this feature, we welcome all focused testers to give it a go. Feedback can be provided here.

Work has begun on a new Looking for Guild system. Further details will be provided when we are ready for feedback.

Like the Focus Frame, the character Unit and Target Frames can now be unlocked and moved to one's content.

Spells bound to a key now start to be cast when the button is pressed down by default, instead of waiting for the key to go up. This is an option that can be turned off in the Interface menu under Combat. Mouse clicking has not changed and operates on mouse click up.

Targets and focus targets now display on the mini-map.

Moved Video and Sound to a new "Options" screen.

Added a network category to the new Options screen and included the two network checkboxes.

The Network category contains the options "Optimize network for speed" and "Enable IPv6 when available". "Optimize network for speed" will be enabled by default, and will send packets more frequently at the cost of higher bandwidth. The higher bandwidth may lead to disconnects for some players who have limited bandwidth. Players getting disconnected frequently should try unchecking this box.

Visual Settings Updates

Removed the red bar preventing the overall graphics slider from going to ultra based on computer specs.

When the user moves the overall slider to a setting that would have previously been prevented, any option that can't go as high as that setting will get the warning icon with a tooltip explaining why it can't go higher. For example: The user sets the overall slider to Ultra and the water setting can only go to Fair. The water setting would automatically switch to Fair.

Support for DirectX 11 can now be found in the Advanced tab of the Options screen.

At the login screen:

Moved the "Reset User Options" button from the popup window that appears when you click Options to the actual Options window.

Clicking Options now goes directly to the Video tab of the Options screen.